Huermer boards ‘The Keep’

Peter Weir's gothic thriller to shoot in Germany

Alfred Huermer’s German shingle Integral Film has boarded Peter Weir’s “The Keep” and will co-produce with Said Ben Said’s Paris-based SBS Prods.

“The Keep,” based on Jennifer Egan’s contemporary gothic novel about two cousins haunted by a childhood prank who reunite 20 years later to renovate a medieval castle in Germany, is set to shoot in the German state of Thuringia and possibly at Studio Babelsberg near Berlin next year.

The producers hope to tap incentive coin from the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF) as well as regional subsidies.

The pic will have a similar financing structure as Brian De Palma’s “Passion,” which received $2.4 million in German funding. Also co-produced by Huermer and Ben Said, “Passion” shot in Berlin this spring.

Ben Said and Huermer are also co-producing David Cronenberg’s “Maps to the Stars,” starring Rachel Weisz, Robert Pattinson and Viggo Mortensen. That film, budgeted at around $20 million, will likely shoot in Canada and will not qualify for German coin.

In addition, the pair is prepping Philippe Garrel’s “La Jalousie,” which has already secured support from French national film board CNC and will raise additional funds through distribution and international sales guarantees as well as television.

Separately, Huermer is teaming up with French helmer Elie Chouraqui on the adaptation of Fabrice Humbert’s 2009 novel “The Origin of Violence,” about a French teacher who makes a startling discovery while on a trip to Buchenwald with his students. The pic will lens in Weimar and Paris, and is also expected to land German and European funding, including regional, federal and German-French co-production fund coin. Chouraqui will co-produce “The Origin of Violence.”

Munich-based Huermer is likewise partnering with Spain’s Avalon and Animal De Luz in Mexico on Beatriz Sanchis’ “Todos estan muertos,” about a woman who lives with her agoraphobia-afflicted daughter. The pic, which has already secured coin from European co-production fund Eurimages, stars Elena Anaya (“The Skin I Live In”).